I don't know how to cross stitch (and did absolutely zero research before starting this kit), but this is a mood, especially after I realized I miscounted and put the s one space off and now have to pull it back out.
Not that it matters, but I heard it turns out sideways because maybe you took the picture sideways, except when you edit the photo to correct it, the photo doesn't actually transmute all the pixels. It just adds a detail saying to rotate it on the metadata. Then when you upload to Lemmy, Lemmy strips the metadata for privacy reasons (type of phone you took the picture on, location info, etc. as well as rotation).
I applaud your willingness to jump in with zero research and figure it out 😄 But you already do proper embroidery which let's be honest is way harder. Cross stitch will just be a relaxing diversion compared to that!